“We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us,” the Jets general manager said in a conference call on Thursday, not long after signing goalie Connor Hellebuyck to a six-year, $37 million contract.

A lot of work is an understatement here. The Jets checking Hellebuyck off the list is only a piece of an extensive and challenging puzzle for Cheveldayoff.

Winnipeg has some big-ticket players that need to be signed over the next two seasons. Hellebuyck’s name was scratched off that list on Thursday, but names like Jacob Trouba, Josh Morrissey remain on it for near-future decisions and others like Patrik Laine, Kyle Connor and Blake Wheeler are waiting patiently, for the moment.

“We’ve got a group of guys that have a lot of prove,” Cheveldayoff said. “They’re young, they’re hungry. There’s a good core of veterans that want to lead. There’s a good core of middle players that are drivers and there’s really, really good young players that gain some valuable experience. And then we even got a real good, young group of players that are really pushing to keep on pushing the group above them.”

Cheveldayoff said every RFA he has at the moment provides a different set of circumstances when it comes to signing a new contract with the team.

“Everyone of them is different with respect to their situation and the different opportunities [when it comes to arbitration],” Cheveldayoff said. “As far as what this means for the other guys we’re working on, again, everyone is different.”

A lot of those situations will be sorted out by the end of the month.

The dates for the remaining four Jets who elected for salary arbitration were set on Thursday by the NHLPA.

Jacob Trouba’s date is July 20, followed by Adam Lowry’s on July 22, Brandon Tanev’s on July 25 and Marko Dano’s on July 30.

Cheveldayoff said there’s pros and cons if they get to the arbitration table with any of those four players, including cap flexibility.

“In a perfect world, you’d love to have everybody for long-term, but even the system itself doesn’t dictate that you can do that,” Cheveldayoff said. “Again, every player and every situation will be different. There’s a high number of players that have filed this year from an arbitration standpoint and that’s all just part of the process.”

Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has released its last budget before the fall federal election

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